Most games can be played outdoors after dark because they are played in relatively small areas which can be economically illuminated. A few examples are football, baseball, tennis, hockey, track and field and soccer. Golf courses on the other hand, with holes averaging 300 to 400 yards in length and covering large acreage cannot be illuminated for play after dark at a cost economically sustainable. Play of golf at night has therefore been limited to pitch and putt courses, driving ranges and executive type short hole courses.
Attempts have been made to provide golf balls sufficiently visible in the dark so that limited play of golf might be attempted on unlighted golf courses. The visibility of such balls, usually coated with luminous paint, has been so inadequate that they have not come into any appreciable use.